‘CervicalCheck saved my life... it’s the reason I am still here’

A 30-YEAR-OLD Meath woman has told how she was diagnosed with cervical cancer after her first routine smear test.

Katie O’Neill, who lives in Clonee, said she had been diagnosed in the month she turned 26, and she had not experienced any symptoms beforehand.

Thankfully, today she is enjoying life as a newly wed and mother, after undergoing successful treatment.

And this November marks an important landmark for the hairdresser who works in Dublin, because she will be five years clear of cancer, and will then will no longer have to go for an annual check-up.

Looking back on her diagnosis in 2013, she said: “It is only now that I am a mother myself, I think back how my own mother would have felt.

“She was obviously there with me for everything, and my boyfriend at the time who is my husband now.

“CervicalCheck saved my life,” she said. “That’s the reason I am here.”

She got married to Alan in July 2017. The couple were delighted with the arrival of baby Olivia in September 2015.

She said that working as a hairdresser, she saw a lot of young women coming in.

The advice she would give is: “I am always saying go for your smears. I had no symptoms. You don’t have to have symptoms to have cancer. Just go as soon as you get the letter.”

She pointed out that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer after her first test.

“It’s great to know that everything is good,” Katie added.